Northern Ireland companies may be better, or luckier, than their UK counterparts in managing risk, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). While 96 per cent of the Northern Ireland firms surveyed had no definition of business risks, only 21 per cent had experienced any significant risk-related losses. Of the 10 British regional areas surveyed, only the west midlands fared better with 15 per cent having experienced significant losses. The survey claimed that companies were losing millions every year and missing new business opportunities because they failed to manage risk property. Among the Northern Ireland companies, only 26 per cent, the lowest of any region, evaluated the probability of risk, concentrating instead on the financial impact of the risk itself.

Mr Stephen Kingon, managing partner of PwC in Northern Ireland, said while risk management was an established strategy in larger companies, it was not widely used among middle market firms, especially family-controlled businesses.

"What is apparent from the Northern Ireland part of the survey is that risk is managed after it has happened, not anticipated and planned for. Given that approach to risk management it is remarkable that our companies in the survey have come out with so few losses."

The most common reasons for risk-related losses were customer closures, bad debts, physical disasters like fire or flood, systems failures and exchange rates. The survey noted that the faster the growth of businesses, the more likely they were to have adopted co-ordinated risk management strategies.

The Belfast printing company Graham and Heslip has completed a £5 million move to a new state-of-the-art plant on the outskirts of the city.

The company began trading almost 100 years ago, and has since become one of Northern Ireland's leading commercial printers. It also produces more than a billion labels a year for the soft drinks industry - 40 million of them in Russian. Its major customers include Schweppes and Coca-Cola.